White Noise
by Ariisu
Summary: What happens when someone you've spent years trying to forget comes back? Why you go into denial of course! And if that doesn't work, kill some stuff. At least that's what Hiei is set on doing when the girl he'd met when he was six comes to the Ningenkai.
1. Tuning

**Tuning**

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**Disclaimer:**** I do NOT own Yu Yu Hakusho (though I wish I did). The only thing I own are my characters Aria and the others that might show up later.**

**Author's Note:**** This is my first one so pleas go easy on me. And this all starts when Hiei is about 6 and is still with the bandits.**

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Aria, who was about 6, sat in the middle of a field of flowers, bordering thick woods, holding a small stuffed bunny and listening to the sounds of angry voices that were steadily drawing closer. The tall grass hid the girl almost completely and Aria's pure white hair was braided into pig tails and her pale gray eyes looked towards the sounds. But what she found even more interesting than the angry shouts, was the sound of frantic foot steps running towards her. Her sound demon ears picked up every breath, every growl, every heart beat of the approaching demons. Aria guessed that the people shouting were about 200 yards away and the other person running to be only about 100, drawing closer with every second. Despite the malice in the voices and the fact that they were getting closer, her eyes held nothing more than innocent curiosity.

Aria had been allowed to roam that day by her father since he knew how bored she would get at the tribe meeting that was being held. As soon as she had been granted temporary freedom, she had come to the field that was just outside her tribe's territory because it was there that she could hear the sounds of the Makai clearest, which made her feel powerful and all-knowing like her father who could hear a pin drop on the opposite end of the Makai. Aria had only arrived at the field a few moments before she had begun to hear the angry shouts of a group of demons and she thanked her lucky stars that it was shaping up to be an interesting day.

_'Daddy's not gonna like these mean people in his territory.'_ Aria thought, frowning slightly. _'If they come too close, he might actually come stop them himself.' _She shot a quick glance back towards the direction of her home where she could pick her father's throaty laugh out of all the noises that were bombarding her ears from every direction.

"Where's that ungrateful brat!?" She heard one of the approaching voices yell in fury, causing her to wrinkle her nose in distaste, already deciding that she didn't like the rough sound.

"He doesn't sound very happy, does he Mister Hoppity?" Aria murmured, looking down at her stuffed rabbit. After a few seconds, she nodded to the bunny. "Yes, I think you're right. We should probably go hide."

With that, she got to her feet and quickly trotted towards the nearby woods, a playful smile on her face, giggling as she ran. She twirled and danced with every step she took. The bells tied to her ankles, her hair and around her wrists jingled with each movement, mixing with her laughter to create a light melody which only seemed to delight the girl more.

Behind her, as she climbed into a tree, she noticed a small boy around her age running desperately across the field, bleeding badly from a cut on his chest. He had dark black hair with a white star burst and was wearing tattered black pants with a white shirt. Aria moved a branch of the tree aside so she could get a better look at him.

_'Ohhh! Something interesting!'_ Aria thought, grinning gleefully, watching as the boy ran towards the woods she was hiding in, stumbling every few steps. It had been a while since something had come along that caught her interest, what with how cut off the sound demon society was, which only served to make this event all the more exciting for her._ 'I bet he's the one their after. I wonder what he did.' _She leaned forward on the branch to get a better view of the boy as he stumbled into her woods.

The moment he stumbled into the forest, he had entered sound demon territory and Aria could only hope that her father was too enthralled in whatever business he was taking care of to notice the sound of light footsteps entering his territory. Shutting her eyes tight in concentration for a moment, Aria used her yokai to muffle the sounds of his steps. She couldn't completely cancel the sound out from the distance since she was young and wasn't powerful enough yet, but she hoped it would be enough to convince her father it was nothing more than a rabbit (though she doubted it).

Even from the distance, with her sharp hearing, she could hear every ragged breath the subject of her interest took and she could tell he was definitely worse for wear. The boy fell to his hands and knees for a moment where he caught himself, breathing hard, his arms shaking from the strain on his body. His bright red eyes flashed in fear for a moment as one of the voices shouted loudly enough for even the boy's ears to hear. Aria watched in fascination as he shook off the fearful look to replace it with a burning anger. He used his anger and fear to fuel his energy and pushed himself to his feet again, continuing to sprint forward.

By this point, the rest of the demons, were only about 50 yards away, searching furiously through the tall flowers and grass of the field. Aria watched with rampant curiosity as the boy finally collapsed and fell unconscious at the base of the tree that she was hiding in. She glanced over at the ragged looking demons that were still angrily searching the fields, shouting threats, obscenities, and curses as they searched, only further cementing Aria's distaste for the group. Once she was sure that their attention was elsewhere, she looked down at her stuffed rabbit, giving him a stern look. "Now you stay here Mister Hoppity. No funny business. Don't move. Do you understand?" She asked, shooting a stern look over her shoulder before hopping down and landing next to the boy lightly, her bells making no noise at all.

She crouched next to him, inspecting his collapsed form with interest as if he was just an specimen for examining. Her innocent eyes were knit together in a worried expression as she took in the large cut on his stomach. "Well I can't let the fun stop so soon by you dying. Then things would be boring again." She said to the unconscious body, grinning at him with a small giggle. She knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around his torso, trying to lift him off the ground.

She whined and struggled as she hefted him half way into her arms. Once she was satisfied that he was safely in her grasp, she jumped and landed on the lowest branch of the tree (just barely). From there, she struggled to drag the lifeless body up to where she had been before, out of sight of the rather large and powerful demons in the field.

Ten minutes later and thoroughly out of breath, she lay the boy back against the trunk of the tree, switching him with Mr. Hoppity, whom she returned to her grasp with a gleeful hug. She then turned her attention back to the boy who lay bleeding next to her. She surveyed him for a second before grinning. Quickly, she got to work tearing off the bottom of her dress and ripping it into strips like she'd seen her tribe's medics do.

_Wha-Why does my chest hurt?' _Hearing the sounds of ripping fabric, Hiei began to slowly return to consciousness with a groan. He forced one eye open to see some stranger, tearing up fabric. Immediately, his survival instincts kicked in and he grabbed frantically at the short sword strapped to his waist and faster than Aria could blink, held the blade to her throat, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he struggled to keep the blade up. He glared over at her as he tried to scramble to his feet and piece together where he was from the memories his still sleep fogged mind was offering up.

Aria didn't seem fazed in the slightest and merely paused in her ripping to grin over at Hiei. "That's a weird way to say 'thank you'." She giggled, "Oh, and be careful that you don't fall. That would hurt. And it was really hard getting you up here." She told him, still grinning.

Hiei just growled and held the blade closer to the girl's throat, thinking that she might be a servant or slave girl of one of the bandits who were chasing him. Not removing his eyes from Aria, his hand flew up to where his tear gem was still hanging from his neck. The fact that it was still safely around his neck relieved him slightly, but only slightly.

"What's your name?" He demanded, fighting back any signs of pain.

Hearing him speak for the first time, Aria giggled delightedly, deciding that she liked this one's voice much more than the other demons in the field. "My name's Aria! I don't have a last name because my tribe is one whole family so we don't get last names. But if I had a last name, I would like it to start with a 'B'. That's my favorite! That's because my favorite color starts with b. It's blue. What's your name?!" She said, almost bursting with enthusiasm and a large smile on her face.

_'What a weird girl.'_ He thought to himself, with a small inner sigh of exhaustion. Hiei glared at her but put his sword away. Not really because he didn't see her as a threat but more because blood loss was making him tired and he would rather put his sword away than seem weak by dropping it. The moment he moved, the pain from his chest caused his vision to swim and he stumbled forward, trying to keep his balance.

"Don't want to tell me your name, huh?" Aria interjected into the silence while the boy across from her struggled to remain conscious. "That's OK. I don't mind. I'll just give you a name instead. I think I'll call you..." Aria paused as her 6 year old mind struggled to come up with an appropriate name before a wide grin split her face. "Ishkabibbles!" She laughed, grinning at him.

Hiei glared at her as he struggled to get words out through the pain, wanting to tell her that she should be killed for having called him such a ridiculous name, his 7 year old pride hurt at the name which his mind could only describe as "cutesy", which Hiei would not tolerate for himself. After choking on his own breath for a few moments, deeming speech too much of a hassle, he just settled on glaring at her instead.

"You should sit down so I can help you." Aria said.

"I don't need anyone's help." Hiei ground out, baring his fangs at her angrily and his red eyes flashing in both pain and annoyance.

Aria wrinkled her nose in frustration. He was lying. Sound demons, from the moment they are born can call a lie when they hear it. "Lying isn't very good. People won't want to help you if you lie like that." Aria said, frowning.

Hiei just huffed indignantly, plopping back down and crossing his arms. "I am not lying. Why would I want anyone's help, especially your's?" He huffed, still sulking slightly from the nickname she had given him. He was not an 'Ishkabibbles' darn it!

"You are too lying!" The young girl argued stubbornly. "Now sit still!"

He shot a glare at her in warning, as if to say she would be in trouble if she came any closer, but Aria didn't seem to notice as she got up from her spot and nimbly crossed the branch, bandages in tow.

"Off!" Hiei cried, scooching away from Aria, who sat next to him and began to try and bandage up his chest.

"Stop moving!" Aria whined, "I ripped up my favorite dress so the very least you can do is sit still."

"Make me!" Hiei snarled, struggling to get away until all the moving caused him to disrupt one of his broken ribs. Hiei had to bite down on his tongue to keep from yelling out in pain and was momentarily sedated by the pain.

That one moment was all Aria needed and she immediately moved in to begin to bandage Hiei's chest and the small cut on his head. She hummed as she sat next to him and, as much as Hiei wanted to lash out at the girl, both the humming and blood loss were dulling his sharp demeanor. He was just too tired to be difficult and the drunken members of the gang of bandits he was in hadn't gotten his tear gem, that was the important thing, Hiei reasoned, allowing the other girl to begin to bandage the cut on his chest. Plus, even he realized that the bleeding needed to be stopped. _'Oh well. It's not like anyone can see, so no one will be able to tease me for this.'_ Hiei thought sluggishly as Aria finished bandaging his chest and moved to his head. '_She seems too weird to be any real trouble anyway._'

"I bet he's hiding in this forest!" One of the demon's hissed, his slitted eyes scanning the woods for signs of life as his snake-like tail swung behind him.

"If you want that brat's necklace that bad, then go!" A dog demon growled, coming up to stand next to his ally at the edge of the woods. "I'll come back in the morning to get your corpses. That's sound demon territory," he huffed, taking a deep swig from the bottle he was holding.

"If they didn't grab the little bastard already, they probably aren't listening right now." Another of the group reasoned, also sounding completely drunk. "I say we go in."

"Sound demons are **always** listening, you idiots." The dog demon growled. "I'm going back." He said with a wave of his hand, turning back to go the way he'd come. "The brat'll get hungry and come crawling back soon any way."

"Pfft! Let him leave, that means more for us when we sell that gem."

"Yeah," Another agreed, "So what are we waiting for?" He cried with a blood thirsty smile, before taking his first step into the forest, waiting a few seconds, and then, when nothing happened, continued in followed by his comrades.

"When I find that brat, I'm gonna' beat him into next week for being so troublesome." One of the demons growled as he stepped into the forest.

Hiei was shocked back to attention by the sounds of his pursuers coming from directly below him. His head snapped down to see the three bandits walking just a few feet away from the base of the tree he sat in. His breathing picked up and he immediately began to try and struggle out of Aria's grasp to climb higher into the tree and away from the demons pursuing him.

"Hey! Stop!" Aria cried, not bothering to keep her voice down. She grabbed hold of Hiei, trying to keep him in place as she attempted to continue to bandage his head.

"Quiet." Hiei hissed, glaring at her, "They'll find me!" He continued to try and break free from her grasp, which would have normally been easy for him, but since he was trying to do it quietly and also because he was weaker from blood loss, it seemed much harder than it really should have been. _'Is this girl trying to get me found?!' _Hiei thought frantically, shooting the three demons below him a fearful glance, surprised to see that they showed no indication of having heard the girl.

"No, they won't." Aria sang, rolling her eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about!? Be quiet! They'll hear you." Hiei whispered desperately, trying to keep his voice down and shooting glances between the bandits and the smiling face of the girl across from him. _'The moment they're out of hearing range, I'll kill her!'_ Hiei thought angrily.

Aria just giggled and grinned. "Nu-uh."

"Shut up!" He growled, raising his voice as loud as he felt safe. _'This girl is either an enemy or insane.' _He thought angrily.

"I can prove that I'm right!" Aria exclaimed excitedly, "See. Watch Ishkabibbles."

Hiei shot her a confused/angry look, but it quickly turned to panic when he saw her draw a deep breath into her small body._ 'No, no, no, no, no. She wouldn't! She can't! No. _**No!**_' _Hiei choked on a yell, just barely managing to stop himself from shouting at her just in time, realizing that would be just as bad as what ever she was planning.

Aria finished drawing in a deep breath and she let out a loud yell that, to Hiei, seemed to go on for hours. Hiei held his breath, listening to the echo of her shout ricochet off of the tree trunks before finally fading off into the distance.

_'She's insane! It's over. I'm done for. I'm out numbered, over powered, tired, injured, and this crazy girl just did me in...Well at the very least, if I'm going to die, I'm taking her with me.'_ Hiei thought resolutely, whipping his katana out with a furious snarl, preparing to cut off the girl's head.

Just as Hiei was preparing to swing his blade, she turned to him and gave him a wide grin while pointing down towards the ground below. "Told you!" She laughed, causing Hiei to momentarily pause and glance down.

He was positively floored. Down on the forest floor, the three drunken members of the group of bandits Hiei lived with were searching through the brush as if they hadn't heard a thing. Hiei knew they were drunk, but he didn't think they were that drunk. He frowned in confusion, watching as they searched the forest underbrush, just waiting for reality to set in and the greedy bandits to look up and see him. He waited and watched for a few more seconds but that reality never came.

They hadn't heard a thing.

Now satisfied that it was safe to yell, he whipped around as fast as his injured body would allow to glare at Aria. "Why the hell'd you do that!?"

"Because you didn't believe me." Aria stated simply, confused as to why he was getting so mad.

Hiei struggled to find an appropriately angry response but his 7 year old vocabulary just wasn't cutting it. "You...You're insane!"

Aria just grinned at him as he collapsed back down into his sitting position against the tree trunk. "So why are they after you?" She asked with an expectant grin on her face.

Hiei shot her a look that told her he wasn't about to answer her, but that didn't in any way damper Aria's mood.

Trying just to ignore her, the young fire apparition closed his eyes.

"Hey Ishkabibbles?" He heard her say and cracked open an eye to see Aria staring down at the ground.

"Hm?" Hiei hummed, though he still scowled from the use of the idiotic nickname.

"How good are your three peoples' sense of smell?" She asked him, looking up at him with concern.

...Smell? Wha-?..."Oh Shit!"

He grabbed the girl's wrist and leaped up a few branches, dragging her along behind him, even though he was still weak.

"Mister Hoppity!" Aria shrieked, trying to grab her bunny before Hiei dragged her higher into the tree but missing it by a few inches. "Heeyy-**mmph**!!"

Aria struggled against Hiei who, despite his size and blood loss, held her firmly against the trunk of the tree with his hand against her mouth and his other pinning her to the tree.

Slowly, he removed his hand from her shoulder and pressed it to his lips in the universal sign for 'shut up' and then took his other hand away from her mouth.

Aria looked at him, with her lip jutting out slightly as she pouted but then shot a fearful glance back down to Mister Hoppity who was hanging off the branch of the tree, seeming as if he could fall at any moment. "Mister Hoppity..." She whined weakly. Hiei, ignoring the girl, looked down from his perch in the tree, glaring at the three demons._ 'How, at a time like this can she possibly be worrying about a toy?!' _Hiei thought, _'Doesn't she realize that if they find me, they'll just kill her too?'_

Below the two, the snake demon searched around the base of the tree they hid in and Hiei held his breath. He could see the snake demon's tongue flicking in and out as he searched for Hiei's scent. Hiei tried not be scared, not to sweat, not to breath, not to think. The snake demon could probably smell all of those.

Beside him, Aria just watched and listened. She could hear the snake demon's sniffing the air but what she was more focused on was the sound of his heart beat. It was weird and labored, causing Aria to become curious (not that that was uncommon) as to if something was wrong with the bandit. The demon groaned and flopped down at the base of the tree, and Aria was now almost certain he was sick.

_'Is he...sleeping?!'_ The young Hiei thought incredulously as he stared down at the snake demon. Almost as soon as the thought entered his head, snoring erupted from the collapsed demon and Hiei's suspicions were confirmed. The snake demon had collapsed in a drunken stupor at the base of the tree and upon further inspection, Hiei found that the other two demons had as well!

_'Another day, another group of drunken demons outsmarted.'_ Hiei thought smugly with a somewhat relieved smirk, only to be shocked out of his thoughts by a rustling noise beside him.

"What are you doing!?" Hiei hissed, as he saw the girl next to him trying to shimmy back down to the branch they had been on.

"Mister Hoppity," Aria whined, not taking her eyes off the stuffed rabbit a few branches down.

Hiei just growled, rolling his eyes and jumped down and grabbed the rabbit before jumping back up to where Aria was still trying to struggle down. "Here!" He huffed, holding out the rabbit. "Now will you stop acting like such an idiot?"

"Mister Hoppity!" Aria squealed and rushed forward to grab Hiei in a tight hug, causing him to shout in shock and struggle backwards, thinking that it was some form of attack. Ignoring the now blushing and glaring Hiei, Aria let him go to grab the bunny from his grasp and hugging it tightly with a wide grin.

Hiei just rolled his eyes, but seeing the girl hugging the rabbit reminded him of his own safety blanket and he absentmindedly fingered his necklace.

"Do you like that necklace or something?"

Hiei snapped back into reality. "Huh? What?"

"That necklace. It's pretty. Why do you wear it? Because back at my home, only the women wear stuff like that." She stated innocently.

Hiei growled and grasped the tear gem even tighter in his hand. "I wear it because I want to!"

Aria just shrugged, not too concerned. "Okay." She hummed, swinging her feet just a bit to make the bells on her ankles jingle.

Hiei regarded the girl carefully before sitting down. "Why are you helping me?" He asked, for the first time speaking to her civilly while letting his legs hang off the branch and swing beneath him.

"Because I think you're interesting." She said, giggling. "And I was right! You're very interesting Ishkabibbles!"

Hiei growled, turning his head to hide a blush. "My name's not Ishkabibbles and glad I can serve as your entertainment." He grumbled sarcastically.

Aria laughed and stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, if you dislike it so much, tell me your real name and I might stop calling you Ishkabibbles."

Hiei paused, weighing the pros and cons of giving out his name before finally making his decision to tell her, if only to get her to stop calling him Ishkabibbles. "It's...Hiei," He muttered, crossing his arms.

"Hm...I like that name." Aria said grinning. "I've decided. You're going to be my friend." Aria stated with a short nod.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "You can't just decide something like that."

"Yea-huh. Because I've decided." Aria said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "So it doesn't matter. You're gonna' be my friend no matter what."

_'No matter what?' _Hiei repeated mentally to himself, trying to find some logic in what the girl was saying. _'Does she even know what she's talking about? What a strange gi-'_ Before Hiei could finish his train of thought, the blood loss and day's excitement finally caught up to him and he fell out of consciousness and into the darkness of sleep. The last thing he heard was the girl humming and the sound of bells.

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**_And now a word for your creator:_**

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**Annndd...DONE! I got the first part of White Noise (though I'm still toying with the name Face the Music so White Noise may not stay) all finished. I hope it's not too terrible but this is my very first try. I would sincerely appreciate any sort of critique that people would like to give me. If it's no good, then tell me so. I'm all for plot changes, tweaking the character, working on my writing style, _anything._**


	2. Warm Up

**Warm-Up**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. I just own my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, after this one the actual plot starts! Yay! And any critiques or comments in general are vastly welcomed!

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An eleven year old Hiei arrived at the field of flowers, looking around for Aria. He still felt out of place amongst the flowers, even after years of visiting the field.

He waited a few seconds before clearing his throat loudly then waited for the girl to pop out from behind one of the trees, expecting that she was just playing a small joke on him like she had a tendency to do. But when Aria never came out, Hiei began to fidget in frustration. Where was she?! He knew it had nothing to do with her not knowing he was there. She could always hear his arrival.

Growing impatient, Hiei growled under his breath. She was the one that demanded that he return to this field at least once a month and now she was making him wait. What form of bullshit was that!? _'Has something happened?' _Hiei wondered absently. _'One less pain for me to deal with I suppose.' _He reasoned with a shrug of his shoulders. _'But I might as well see what is going on.'_

With a huff of annoyance, Hiei leaped into one of the nearby trees, nimbly flitting from one tree to the next, realizing with a bit of surprise that this would be the first time he would be venturing closer to Aria's home than the field, and the first time he'd entered the forest since the day he'd met Aria. But then again, he had never had a reason to. Aria had always been in the field before he had even shown up, grinning like always, laughing, humming or singing like she always would. And it unnerved Hiei that this time was different. He may not have particularly liked the girl, but she was consistent, and Hiei had never been a big fan of change. Change had kicked him out the group of bandits he'd been in, change had lost him his tear gem, change had made him an abomination and earned him the name the Forbidden Child. No, Hiei was definitely not a big fan of change.

"Aria?" Hiei called out hesitantly, not knowing what would happen to him now that he was officially in sound demon territory without an escort or any form of permission. _'Oh well. I can handle whatever pathetic demon that decides to protest my presence here.' _Hiei thought haughtily with a slight smirk, trying to seem more confident than he felt.

Hiei slowed slightly as he smelled blood not too far off and guessed this was probably the sound demon's main camp. He purposely softened his breathing and tried to make as little noise as possible like Aria had taught him to try and seem like a natural part of the forest. Ahead of him he could see a break in the trees.

He continued forward slowly, peeking through the trees only to be met with the sight of a burning wreck of a settlement and Hiei's breath caught in his throat. He had never seen Aria's home, but he was assuming this wasn't how it normally looked.

All around him, houses were burnt to the ground and common day objects lay strewn across the ground as if they had been abandoned in a hurry. There were no visible bodies but there was sure a lot of blood. The coppery smell of the dark red liquid that stained the ground overwhelmed Hiei's senses until it was all he could smell.

_'What happened here?!' _Hiei wondered with no small amount of shock. Sound demons may not be the strongest type of demon in the Makai but it would take an extremely big and powerful force to take out a whole tribe of them and there would definitely be _some _bodies left behind.

"Aria?" Hiei voiced, a bit louder than he had before, once again receiving no response. "Aria!" He shouted, looking around more frantically for the girl.

The demon that did this could still be around and his life could very well be in danger but he ignored it. _'What am I doing? Why am I still here!?' _Hiei's mind screamed at him, trying to conjure up the reason as to why he was so upset by the burning wreck and as to why he was still looking for her. It wasn't the first time he'd seen a village burnt to the ground, in fact, he'd helped create them back when he'd been a part of the bandits. Why was that time so different?

Swallowing hard, and forcing himself forward, Hiei ventured into the rubble, looking around for some sign of what had happened. He kept one hand on the hilt of his sword, prepared to face whatever had done this.

Hiei was so focused on keeping a lookout for what was the cause of all the destruction, that he jumped slightly when he felt his foot brush up against something soft and furry.

Hiei growled and positioned his katana ready to strike down whatever had surprised him so much but paused once he saw what it was and had been caught so off guard that he almost dropped his blade.

Mr. Hoppity?!

Even at ten years old, Aria would never let her rabbit out of her sight for long. But what perplexed Hiei even more than the rabbit callously abandoned to the elements on the ground, was the bell tied to its floppy ear. She would set the rabbit down every now and again if she saw something she deemed more interesting but not once, not even for a second, had Hiei ever seen Aria take off one of her bells and he could tell it was hers from the purple tint to it Aria had added once by trying to paint it purple (her favorite color at the time).

With a look of complete confusion, Hiei knelt down next to the rabbit to inspect it. _'What in the seven hells is going on?! Where is Aria?'_ Hiei thought, picking up the rabbit and fingering the bell, causing it to emit a soft jingling noise. He didn't really feel concerned for the girl, more curious as to what had happened. He was slightly mournful that he had lost someone that, even at the young age of eleven, he recognized as a potentially powerful ally for the future. It also hadn't completely registered in his mind that the girl might be gone forever. Even after her years of forcing him to come visit her, calling him by that idiotic name she had given him, and constantly teasing him, at least he felt there would be someone always there if he needed help. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of that feeling being gone, so...he didn't acknowledge it.

_'Where is she?' _Hiei wondered, removing the bell and slipping it onto his fingers while glancing around the area for any signs of life.

Absentmindedly, Hiei flipped the rabbit over only to be stopped in his tracks by the sight of the back of the rabbit completely soaked with blood.

Hiei dropped the rabbit with a cry of surprise and backed away from the stuffed toy slowly, his eyes wide in horror. Suddenly, it finally dawned on him that the insane little girl that had always been at the field waiting for him without fail, might very well be dead.

_'What the hell?!' _Hiei's mind was reeling and he felt as if he might get sick. His hand tightened around the bell in his hand as he backed away from the rabbit as if by getting away from the blood soaked bunny, that he could get away from the implications. He clenched Aria's bell so tightly in his fist that his nails bit into his skin until blood flowed from his palm to cover the bell's shiny surface.

As fast as he could, Hiei retreated from the old home of the Senritsu Tribe, wanting as far away from that place as fast as he could, his mind almost overflowing with thoughts as he ran. What surprised him the most is that he almost felt...guilty. Guilty for not being there to help Aria when she had saved his life once before. He hadn't been able to return the favor and now he never would be able to.

He just wanted to get away and never have to think of that place again. Never again.


	3. Track One

**Track One : Coffee Break**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, I'm finally getting to the actual plot. Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

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"Yusuke!"

Yusuke winced as soon as he heard the happy voice of the oh-so-peppy grim reaper, Botan directly behind him and decided to employ the maybe-if-I-ignore-you-you'll-go-away tactics, continuing his trek to school as if he hadn't even heard Botan. He only got a few more steps before he felt a shoe connect with the back of his skull and he turned to glare at the grinning grim reaper, who held the offending shoe in her left hand and a compact communicator in the other.

"I'm so glad I could get your attention Yusuke!" She said, grinning as Yusuke glared at her menacingly, rubbing the back of his head. "You have and urgent mission from Koenma." She explained.

Yusuke just glanced at Botan. "I just got off a mission, I'm tired, and I'm late for class." He huffed, turning back around and heading back towards the school.

"First off, school is the other way and second, since when did you care about getting to class on time?!" Botan huffed angrily, trotting to keep up with the Spirit Detective.

"Since I was able to use it as an excuse to get out of doing Prince Pamper's dirty work." Yusuke said with a smirk, placing his hands behind his head.

"Yusuke!" Botan cried indignantly, "This could be very serious! A low A class demon has managed to get into the Ningenkai!"

"Gahhh!" Yusuke groaned, "What if they don't mean any harm? What if they're just here to get a Jolly Meal (like a Happy Meal but without being copy written) or something?"

Botan eyed him with no small level of frustration. "It's more likely they're here to try to snack on a good portion of the human race."

"You don't know that." Yusuke muttered before heaving a sigh. "Alright, whatever, fine. I'll keep an eye out for this demon of yours, kick its ass, and send it back to the Makai."

"That's the spirit." Botan cheered happily.

"What is it that I'm looking for?"

Botan flipped open the compact, pressing a button and staring at the screen as words came up. "The identity of the demon is unknown. What is known is that it's an A/B class sound demon, so you should be careful to not let it get a word in or it could brain wash you or even hurt you with just the sound of its voice. Then don't talk about anything you wouldn't want the enemy to know to anyone until we catch this demon. They can hear from far distances. Also, don't lie around this demon. Sound demons are known to become very violent when lied to since they can't lie themselves."

"Alright, got-,"

"Hey Urameshi!" Yusuke turned around and waited a few seconds, allowing Kuwabara to catch up.

"Kuwabara we gotta' go catch us some scary demon." Yusuke told him, pumping a fist.

"No way! I'm not getting involved with any more of that creepy, demony stuff." Kuwabara huffed, crossing his arms as the trio resumed their trek down the street.

"It'd be a shame if that demon that got into the Ningenkai was after Yukina. I might not find the demon before they do something." Yusuke sighed dramatically, nudging Botan to play along.

"Oh, yes! Her tear gems are quite valuable after all. She would be a very big target for any demon that got into the human world." Botan said, nodding solemnly in agreement while trying to keep from laughing.

Kuwabara gasped in horror and struck one of his 'trademark' poses. "I shall not let a single, awful villain lay a hand on my sweet Yukina!" Kuwabara stated, whipping out his 'warrior of love' headband, gaining himself some strange stares from the people walking by.

Yusuke and Botan shot each other amused glances and started walking again, but before either Yusuke or Kuwabara could take a step, they both sensed that a demon was nearby. Trying to not look conspicuous, they shot each other a knowing look and gave a short nod, scanning the crowds of people for the demon.

"Well it sure didn't take long for this demon to make itself known." Yusuke whispered. "They must really want to get sent back to Makai. Cocky bastard. Right in the open too."

"It's getting closer Urameshi." Kuwabara muttered.

"I know, I know." Yusuke grumbled in response.

While the boys looked for the demon, Botan removed the demon compass from the sleeves of her kimono, lifting it up to check for the energy signature of the demon. She immediately got a blip on the compass, the small dot representing the demon heading directly towards her and fast.

"There!" Yusuke shouted as he finally got a lock on the demon's position, charging towards the direction that he felt the youki energy. "The sooner I beat this guy into submission, the sooner it's done." He growled, stretching his fist forward through the thick crowd of people, pushing people aside to grab a handful a material and yanking it towards him, slamming his captive against the brick wall of the building bordering the sidewalk. Around him, people shrieked and yelled seeing Yusuke seem to be randomly attacking an innocent pedestrian. Kuwabara and Botan came up right behind him to stand on either side of him and look at his captive.

"Hey! Let go! What's your problem?! Get off! Put me down! You're gonna' rip my clothes!" The girl cried, struggling against Yusuke's hold. She grabbed at his hand, trying to force his fist open and release his iron grip on the collar of her shirt but couldn't even get him to budge as her feet fought to find purchase against the ground from where she hung a few inches in the air.

While she struggled to get free, Yusuke struggled to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. _'This is the A class demon?!...That can't be right.' _Yusuke thought in disbelief as he gave the girl in front of him the once over. She couldn't have been any taller than 5'3" and her appearance wasn't exactly what you would call intimidating. Her bright purple hair was streaked with green and blue highlights, and pulled up into a messy bun along with a few small braids and her eyes were colored with artificial contacts to match her hair. She wore 3 different necklaces and an assortment of bracelets that jangled every time she moved, plus large silver hoops. He almost would have been fooled into letting his guard down if it hadn't been for his rather disturbing experience with Miyuki, that tranny he'd fought when rescuing Yukina.

"Yusuke!" Kuwabara cried in indignation, "What are you doing to that girl!?"

"She's a demon Kuwabara." Botan whispered, making sure none of the crowd could hear her.

"Yusuke!" Kuwabara shouted again.

Finally, becoming aware of all the stares he was getting, Yusuke dropped the girl back down to the ground, but kept a firm hold on her wrist. "Haha!" Yusuke laughed loudly with a fake grin, "I'm sorry! I've mistaken you for someone else. Here let me buy you coffee to make it up to you." He declared, dragging her along behind him, keeping the wide grin on his face as the crowds dispersed.

"Hey! You're lying! Let me go!" She cried, still struggling to break her wrist free from his grasp, her jewelery jangling loudly as she fought against him.

"You're in a lot of trouble, so I'd suggest you play along." Yusuke told her sternly as Kuwabara and Botan caught up with him.

"Nu-uh! That's lying!" She argued, trying to plant her feet and pull her wrist free but it was doing nothing to stop Yusuke from dragging her along.

"Why are you here?" Yusuke asked her once they entered a quiet back street.

"No, I can't tell you! That's a secret! Let me go!" She cried, still struggling to get free.

"Yusuke let her go! It is ungentlemanly to handle a delicate lady so roughly!" Kuwabara argued.

"She might run Kuwabara. It's best that we let Yusuke handle this." Botan said.

Yusuke looked at the girl who was still struggling to break free, inspecting her curiously before making a decision. "Hey!" He said loudly, getting her attention and making her pause in her frantic attempt to get away. "If I promise to let you go, will you promise to not run?" He asked.

"Yusuke!" Botan protested, but Yusuke silenced her with a wave of the hand.

"Botan, you said she was a high B, low A class demon. I may be strong, but I'm pretty sure it would be a bit harder to hold her if she were actually trying. So either I got the wrong demon, or she's not really out to do any harm. Either way, letting her off a leash should be fine." He explained before turning back to the girl. "So do you promise?" He repeated, receiving a vigorous agreement from the demon. "OK then." He said releasing his grip.

She stumbled backwards a few steps once he let go before regaining her balance, but as promised didn't run and straightened up to face Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan. "Well?" She asked, with an expectant but otherwise, peaceful expression, dusting herself off.

"I, Kazuma Kuwabara, apologize whole-heartedly for the brutish way this savage has treated you miss!" Kuwabara said, rushing up to take her hands, before receiving a punch to the head from Yusuke.

"Who are you?" Yusuke asked the girl while still glaring at Kuwabara.

"Myself." She responded with a slightly confused expression.

Yusuke let out a sigh of aggravation but before he could rephrase his question, Botan piped up, reading from the information the compact was giving her. "Her name is Aria. Age unknown. A once member and short time leader of the Senritsu tribe. Reasons for her abandoning that tribe are unknown. A high B class sound demon. Special abilities unknown. She is known to have her hand in the demon Black Market but nothing has ever been pegged on her directly so no charges were placed. Responsible for the Kaichou Massacre two years back that killed 32 demons and 1 of Spirit World's employees and a warrant was placed for her arrest but later charges were dropped for classified reasons. Otherwise, a spotless record."

"33." Aria interjected.

"What?" Botan asked, looking up from her information.

"It's 33 demons in the Kaichou Massacre but that was kinda' an accident." Aria corrected her, smiling pleasantly.

"Oh..." Botan muttered, a little nervous about how easily she could talk about such a bloody event, putting away her compact.

"But this is hardly fair," Aria whined, "Now you know almost everything about me and I know nothing about you." She said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Fine. I'm Yusuke and this is Botan." He said, pointing over at the blue-haired, grim reaper who gave her a nervous wave, still feeling uneasy around an A class demon with nothing keeping it in check and stop it from killing her. "And since Kuwabara has already introduced himself, would you mind telling me what you're doing in the human world now?" Yusuke asked.

Ignoring his question, Aria looked at him curiously, her mouth turned down in concentration. "Yusuke?...Hm...wait...where have I heard that name before?" She muttered, wracking her brain for the name, "Hm...Yusuke, Yusuke, Yusu-Ah! That's it! Now I remember!" She said, snapping her fingers and grinning widely. "You're the one that killed Suzaku." She exclaimed, grinning at Yusuke and grabbing his hands in hers. "I would like to personally thank you for killing that sorry excuse for a musician." She said, shuddering for effect then giving Yusuke short bow.

Yusuke didn't know what to make of the situation. He scratched his head in confusion as he watched the girl give him a short bow. "Um...You're welcome? You knew Suzaku?" He asked, becoming a bit more wary of the girl, now knowing that she hung around those types of people.

Aria nodded in confirmation, still grinning.

"How?"

Aria's smile got wider and she giggled to herself. "I wanted his flute." She said, grinning.

"Um, why?"

"Just because...I never did get that flute though." She added with a pout.

"Ookkaay," Yusuke said, raising an eyebrow but choosing to not press the subject. "But back to the matter at hand, do you realize that you are breaking the law right now and I have been told to arrest you?"

"Uh-huh!" Aria said, grinning widely. "I heard you."

"So maybe if you could explain to me why you're here, you might get a lighter sentence." Yusuke explained, trying to reason with girl.

"Nope." Aria stated giggling.

Yusuke huffed in aggravation, resisting the urge to start yelling, which he knew would draw attention to the group on the back street. "Well, whatever your secret reason for being here, you're going to have to go back to the Makai immediately." He growled, trying to keep his temper in check.

"Can't do that." Aria sang, dancing around him and past Kuwabara and Botan, walking back out onto the main street.

"Hey! Wait!" Yusuke yelled, no longer caring about the people who might hear as he tried to grab at the girl who easily skipped out of his range laughing. "You said you wouldn't run away!" He shouted after her.

"I'm not running!" Aria shouted over her shoulder, laughing. "Now come on, you have to buy me coffee!"

"I don't have to do anything!" Yusuke barked angrily.

Aria stopped skipping to turn her head and look at Yusuke. "But you said." She whined.

"I was just saying that to get you away from the crowd." Yusuke explained with a look of frustration.

"But you still said...and what's coffee?" Aria asked looking confused

It was at this point that Kuwabara decided it was the right time to catch up to the two. "If it is coffee you want, than I will buy you some!" He declared, trying to seem heroic (and failing horribly). But Aria only shook her head at him, causing the bells in her hair to jingle noisily.

"No. It has to be him or else he'd be lying." Aria said, pointing at Yusuke.

Kuwabara looked perplexed but Botan stood on her toes and whispered in Yusuke's ear for him to just play along. Yusuke grumbled something about how Botan had better repay him which made Aria chuckle.

Regardless of how out of the loop both Yusuke and Kuwabara felt, they both grudgingly began to walk towards the nearby coffee shop.

"Follow us." Yusuke huffed, already pulling out his wallet, wishing his last five a sad farewell.

"Alright!" Aria chirped, skipping after him while fingering one of her bells. A smirk grew on her face behind his back as she trotted after him.


	4. Track Two

**Track Two : Some Questions Are Better Left Unasked  
**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, track number two! Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

* * *

The group of four sat down at one of the tables in the far corner of the coffee shop as to not be heard. Yusuke handed Aria her coffee, which she promptly took a big gulp from only to yelp in pain from the heat and also the unappetizing taste. "Icky." Aria muttered, setting the drink down and sticking her tongue out in disgust.

Yusuke huffed slightly, glaring at the cup of coffee that had cost him the last amount of money he had and now she wasn't even drinking it. That was bullshit! Yusuke grumbled under his breath before Botan nudged him slightly in the side and gave him a nod in Aria's direction, who was currently more interested in the tiny straw she got with her coffee than the group of people looking at her.

"Ahem!" Yusuke said, clearing his throat loudly.

"Mm?" Aria hummed, not looking up from her fascinating tiny coffee straw, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well if you don't mind," Yusuke just about growled. "I've bought you your coffee, I haven't hauled you off to Koenma yet, so now would you mind at least telling me how in the hell you got here!?"

"Hmm." Aria hummed again, still playing with her straw, the smile not changing.

"Hellooo?"

"Mmm."

"Hey!" Yusuke barked.

"Wha-!?" Aria's head snapped up from what she was doing to stare in surprise across the table at the confused faces of Kuwabara, Yusuke and Botan.

"Have you been listening?!" Yusuke growled.

"Yes." Aria said, slightly confused. "Those people over there," She said pointing to a couple sitting behind her, "Are talking about something called 'a bank account' and that guy is lying a lot."

"How did you get here!?" Yusuke repeated, a little louder this time, beginning to lose his patience.

"Oh, that!" Aria laughed, "Well it's quite simple. First I..."

_**Two hours later...**_

"And so I was all like "Oh shit!' and there was this big orange thing that ran down that hard path and they were roaring really loud (a car) and it hurt my ears a bit. And that's basically how I got here." Aria said with a smile, finally taking a breath for what seemed like the first time after her hour long explanation of how she had gotten into the Ningenkai.

_'Is it over?' _Yusuke's dreary mind registered slowly, finally coming out of the daze he'd entered about 10 minutes into Aria talking. "When I asked how you got here, that didn't mean I needed to know every single detail from the time I found you till the time you were born." Yusuke grumbled.

"But you asked." Aria informed him.

"Um well, after how long that took, maybe we should just continue this conversation at Koenma's office. You will have to come too miss." Botan interjected, standing from the table.

"Yay!" Aria cried, leaping up from her seat. "To the guy's office!"

"Yeah sure, whatever." Yusuke grumbled. "Come on Kuwabara."

"As long as I don't have to listen to her talk for another hour." Kuwabara grumbled.

The young leader of spirit world tapped his hand on his desk impatiently, causing the large stacks of papers to wobble dangerously. He didn't have the time to be just sitting around, waiting for people to show up.

Koenma was so wrapped up in his own angry grumbling that he didn't even notice when the door to his office opened quietly to admit two people.

"Sir?" Kurama called out, followed in by a not too happy looking Hiei.

Koenma jumped slightly, before settling back into his chair, trying to play off his surprise. "Oh, good. You're here."

Hiei cleared his throat loudly, glaring over at the toddler.

Koenma shrank back slightly. "And yes, Hiei. That will be another week off your sentence once this is all taken care of." Koenma added quickly to avoid any conflict with the small fire demon.

Hiei smirked victoriously and chose to stand while Kurama seated himself in one of the chairs.

"Did you find what I asked you to?" Koenma asked, looking towards Kurama, knowing he probably wouldn't get far with Hiei.

"Yes, we did." Kurama said, smiling pleasantly. "Well...we found the energy trail of it at least. The portal the demon used to get into the human world has already closed."

"Good good. Now all we have to do is wait for Yusuke and the others, then I can tell you why you're here."

"Leave it to the idiotic humans to be the last to show up." Hiei growled, with a sniff of disdain.

"Just give them some time Hiei. Their job was more time consuming than ours." Kurama stated calmly, trying to reason with him.

Hiei just huffed in response, glaring off to the side.

Suddenly, the double doors to Koenma's office flew open, revealing Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan and their companion/captive. Yusuke and Kuwabara led the girl to her position in the seat at the center of the room before Koenma's desk and Botan took up her usual position next to the toddler to inform him of what had happened.

"We got your fugitive binky breath!" Yusuke called out, plopping gracelessly into one of the chairs.

"Yep! They got me!" Aria chimed in, smiling. "And aww! A baby! So cute and his widdle hat!" Aria cried.

Yusuke and Kuwabara snickered in the background while Koenma shot the two of them a scathing glare. Hiei rolled his eyes. _'What a disgrace to the demon race.'_ Hiei thought with a mental huff of annoyance._ 'And she was considered the big threat to the humans. How pathetic._'

Clearing his throat and choosing to ignore Aria's comment, Koenma quickly read over the report papers Botan had given him before setting them aside to be claimed by the overwhelming chaos on his desk. "So your name is Aria?" Koenma questioned, folding his hands in front of him.

_'Aria?' _Hiei thought with a small amount of shock, glancing over at the girl quickly, deeming her to look nothing like the young girl that had literally forced him to be her 'friend', but still slightly unnerved by the reappearance of that name especially when connected with a sound demon.

"Today it is." Aria chirped, which put Hiei's mind slightly at rest. _'This girl must change her name then. And that's not an uncommon name after all. Just coincidence.'_ Hiei thought with an internal roll of the eyes at his own behavior, almost chuckling aloud at his own foolishness.

Koenma sighed, already feeling a headache coming on. He hated dealing with sound demons. They always either told you too much or talked in circles so they told you basically nothing at all. "Is it true that you managed to get into the Ningenkai yesterday?"

"Mm." Aria hummed, smiling.

"Direct answer if you please." Koenma ordered.

"To what?" Aria questioned, grinning.

"The question!" Koenma shouted.

"Yes, I got to the human world two days a day ago." Aria answered, rolling her eyes and giggling. _'He's so cute when he makes that face,'_ She thought to herself with a smile.

"What was your purpose in that world?"

"It's a secret." Aria sang. Behind her, she heard the shortest of the group sniff in disdain but she just chuckled. It didn't bother her at all.

Koenma growled and...yep, there was the headache, right on schedule. "Well how did you get into the Ningenkai?"

"**NOO!**" Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan all yelled in unison. Yusuke and Kuwabara both rushed forward to cover Aria's mouth to prevent a repeat of what had happened in the coffee shop.

"Another question! Not that one!" Yusuke shouted frantically as he felt the girl trying to talk behind his hand.

Koenma just raised an eyebrow. "Fine then. Did you realize you were breaking the law?"

"Of course." Aria giggled.

"Well, then..." Koenma said, pausing for a second to think. "I guess since technically you have done no harm, your punishment will be less severe. But you will be sent back to the Mak-"

"Um sir?" Koenma's blue skinned ogre interrupted by sticking his head through the slight opening in the doorway.

"What is it ogre?!" Koenma snapped, angry that his professional, adult sounding talk had been cut short.

George gulped and fought back a shudder of fear. "Um well, about sending the sound demon back sir. The guy we use to create the portals has um...gotten sick sir." He said bracing himself for the verbal explosion he was sure was about to occur.

"What do you mean he's sick?!" Koenma shouted.

George winced at Koenma's outburst. "He's currently being nursed back to health by our top medics." He said, trying to ease the small ruler's anger.

"But his cough sounds awfully bad." Aria interjected, smiling. She didn't really understand that all of this was a bad thing.

Koenma snapped his attention back to the girl, regarding her carefully, which gave George the chance to make his hasty retreat out of the room. "Hm. Well I suppose you're stuck in the Ningenkai until Yusouki gets better." Koenma grumbled.

"Yep! I don't want to go back to the Makai." Aria chirped.

"So until then, you will need to be sealed." Koenma said, opening one of the drawers on his desk to riffle through it and then pulling out what looked like a choker with symbols inscribed onto it. He handed it to Botan who then brought it over to Aria.

"This thing has weird vibrations." Aria commented, holding up the object. "Kinda' like your pacifier. But different vibrations and they're different colors. I like your color better." She added.

"Regardless, you can either wear that or stay in jail until we can return you to the Makai." Koenma commented.

"But-"

"Just put it on!"

"Fine...Jeeze. I don't like jail anyway." Aria sulked, fastening the collar about her neck.

"And she just allows her self to be collared like a damn dog." Hiei muttered under his breath and seconds later felt one of Aria's many bracelets collide with his head. He snarled and whipped his head around to glare daggers at the girl only to be distracted by snickering from both Kuwabara and Yusuke.

"You're one to talk about being collared. You're leashed to the human world too." Kuwabara snickered.

"And what's that supposed to mean dumbass?!" Hiei growled dangerously, reaching for his blade.

Meanwhile, while Hiei and Kuwabara bickered, Aria seemed to be gagging on something as she pulled desperately at the collar.

_'What's going on?! Why can't I talk?! This is bad. Very bad! I need out. I need out!' _Thoughts swam around Aria's head even more sporadically than normal. She clawed fruitlessly at her neck, finally gaining the attention of the group.

"Koenma what's wrong with her?! What did that choker thing do?" Yusuke exclaimed, pausing trying to break up Hiei and Kuwabara (though in all honesty, he hadn't been trying very hard) to look at Aria with concern. Both Hiei and Kuwabara took notice too, looking over at the girl while Kurama resolutely focused his attention off into one of the corners of the room just to the left of Aria with a hint of sympathy in his eyes, not liking to look at the obvious hysterics the girl was in.

"It is a demonic seal and since her youkai stems from her vocal cords, it has sealed her ability to speak. It can only be removed or broken by someone other than the wearer." Koenma explained, nodding.

Aria opened her mouth in a silent scream, continuing to fight the collar, despite what Koenma had said. _'I want out! Let me talk! No!'_Aria screamed in her mind.

"Isn't this a bit inhumane?" Yusuke asked, casting the frantic girl a sympathetic look.

"Not at all. It isn't painful in any way. It just makes her less of a threat." Koenma stated calmly, seeming unfazed by Aria's obvious distress.

"If you say so." Yusuke grumbled, settling back into his chair, still not liking the idea. She hadn't _seemed_ dangerous.

"Hiei," Koenma said, addressing the small apparition, who just growled in response. "From here on out, you'll have to serve as her voice box since you're a telepath."

Hiei snarled at Koenma, baring his fangs, causing Koenma to squeak and hide behind his chair. "Remember that week! Remember that week!" Koenma cried. "I said you'd get it taken off your sentence _after_ this job is completed."

"Just let the girl write out what she wants to say." Hiei growled, "I refuse to be the voice box of some useless mute."

Aria shook her head and just out of curiosity, Hiei dipped into her mind._ 'I can't write. Don't know how.'_ She told him in his mind, having calmed down enough to form coherent thought but still struggling with the collar.

"Fucking perfect." Hiei snarled. "Make it two weeks." He snapped at Koenma.

"Fine." Koenma sighed, just relieved that Hiei had obliged without too much of a fight. "But you'll have to be around the girl at all times."

Hiei growled but chose to stay silent.

Oblivious to what the two were talking about, Aria continued to struggle against the collar around her neck. She tried to pool all her spirit energy to force it off, but found that she couldn't control her spirit energy at all. She let out another silent scream, trying to use the force of the yell to will the collar off but without realizing it, went too long without breathing and while the group of boys were all arguing about where to keep her, fell unconscious.


	5. Track Three

**Track Three : Denial Is More Than A River In Egypt  
**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, I'm finally getting to the actual plot. Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

* * *

Kurama carried the sleeping girl into his home followed by Hiei, who had been told to accompany them in order to complete his responsibilities as Aria's 'voice box' and also because who better to guard a demon than another demon?

After a long discussion, the group had decided that if Aria was to stay in the human world under surveillance, that she would be living with Kurama. Kurama silently thanked his lucky stars that his mother was currently on a trip with her boy friend. It certainly made things a lot easier.

Hiei followed a short distance behind Kurama. He leaned up against the door frame, watching with obvious unhappiness at being there while Kurama situated Aria in one of the guest bedrooms.

_'I have to be** her **voice until that portal maker is better? That worthless excuse for a demon.' _Hiei curled back his upper lip in distaste for the girl. _'She didn't even put up a fight. How can she even call herself a demon?'_ Hiei thought to himself.

Paying no mind to the scowling fire apparition, knowing that he would have a better chance of getting a cat to dance than getting Hiei to engage in any sort of conversation at the moment, Kurama fixed the girl in the plush spare bed. After a moment's thought, Kurama began to remove all of Aria's excess jewelry, deciding that they probably couldn't be too comfortable to sleep in. Just as he moved to remove the first of Aria's bells, he felt a hand suddenly grasp around his wrist, stopping any movement. It was only years of experience that kept Kurama from leaping in surprise. Instead, he calmly turned his head to see the face of a certain irritable fire demon staring up at him.

"Don't do that." Hiei ordered firmly before removing his hand from around Kurama's wrist and turning around to go back to his spot at the doorway.

Kurama looked over at Hiei inquisitively. "Why not?" He asked, not really to go against what Hiei said but more out of simple curiosity.

"Sound demons are bombarded with so much noise they can't be separated from their 'implements' which give them something to concentrate on other than the endless amounts of sounds." Hiei stated, "Which I guess are those bells for that idiotic girl." He added.

"Ah." Kurama said, nodding in acceptance and moving away from the bells. Even though he accepted Hiei's answer, in the back of his mind he still wondered how Hiei knew so much about a race so secluded as sound demons. They were no where near as secluded as the Korime but that didn't exactly encourage visitors. They thought the rest of the world was full of liars, which wasn't necessarily untrue. But actually, now that he thought about it, he wondered why a sound demon would be so far away from a tribe. They hardly left their tribes and one coming all the way to the human world was just unheard of. "I suppose we can just let her rest for now then." Kurama mused aloud, not receiving nor expecting a response from Hiei. With a slight grin, Kurama finished situating the girl and left to start dinner, leaving Hiei to do as he pleased.

Hiei paused momentarily to look the girl over for the first time, not having got to get a good look at her while in Koenma's office. He still felt slightly unnerved by the fact that both the girl's name and demon breed were exactly the same as that of the girl he had met when he was younger, but he quickly shrugged it off as simple paranoia and coincidence. Not like it really mattered anyway. Hiei hadn't thought of that girl in...years. Why start now? _'They look nothing alike.' _Hiei concluded finally, _'Plus, Aria would have no reason to come to the human world.'_

Hiei stepped over to the bed to look at the girl. "You're not her." He told the sleeping girl, who just smiled in her sleep rolling towards him.

"Idiot." Hiei muttered, sneering at the smiling girl.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Hiei resolved to give no more thought to the matter as he opened one of the home's windows and jumped out to sit in one of the close by trees.

_'Mmm...comfy.'_ Aria thought, grinning to herself and snuggling closer into her pillow though not really giving any thought as to why she was so comfortable. She was still tired and wanted to resume sleeping but knew that would be impossible with so much noise bombarding her ears.

Halfheartedly, Aria cracked an eye open experimentally only to shut it again a split second later. It was way too bright. And fluffy. Wait...why was it fluffy?

Aria hesitantly forced one of her eyes open again and glanced around the room groggily, letting her eyes take a few seconds to come into focus.

'_Well, I know it's not my room..._' Aria thought curiously as her body got accustomed to being awake.

Once her body had adjusted to all the new onslaught of noise that she got, she sat up and stretched slightly while looking around.

_'Nope, definitely not my room.'_ she thought, _'OK, where was I last?'_ She asked herself.

Aria ran through her most recent memories sluggishly. _'First I got to the human world. It was pretty and sounded nice...kinda'. There were those things that did the stuff...I ate an apple and fell asleep. I woke up and followed those roaring things...then there was that guy and he bought me coffee. That was gross.'_

_'Are you done yet?'_

_'Nope. Not yet. The coffee was gross and...hey...wait. Not my thoughts.'_ Aria realized, looking around in confusion, thinking that maybe she was confusing noise with thoughts again.

Her ears picked up the sounds of someone rummaging about the kitchen and then the noise of someone sitting downstairs somewhere. She didn't **think** she had heard anyone say something.

_'Hellooo?' _Aria called out mentally.

_'What?!' _The voice snapped testily.

_'Are you in my head?' _

_'No. I'm reading your mind idiot.' _

_'Why?'_

_'What do you mean 'why'?! Because I was ordered to, why else?'_

_'I don't know. If I could hear people's thoughts, I might listen to my thoughts. Though technically, I listen to my thoughts all the time-'_

_'Gah! Would you be quiet!'_

_'They're **my** thoughts. And technically thoughts don't make noise so they can't be quiet.' _Aria stated mentally, while swinging her legs over the side of the bed and stepping out onto the floor. She heard a huff of annoyance and then felt the presence draw out of her mind. She giggled, not bothered in the slightest that some unknown person had just entered her mind and read her thoughts. It didn't matter to her. It wasn't like she had any secrets. Instead she just looked around the room while returning back to her mental list of what she had done up until she had woken in the bed.

For her inspection of the room she looked under the bed, picking up one of the dust bunnies and blowing it across the room, she checked in the closet, picked up the telephone, opened and shut the window, and basically just touched, looked in, inspected, picked up, or played with almost every object in the room.

Meanwhile downstairs, Kurama chuckled softly as he watched Hiei growl in frustration and scowl at nothing in particular. Judging from the rustling he heard upstairs, Kurama guessed that Aria was awake and he also guessed that Hiei had been trying to read the girl's thoughts.

Hiei growled under his breath after finally pulling out of Aria's mind. Her mind had been the most infuriating to listen to that he had ever entered. It was full of music, sounds, and just a cluster of endless noise that was almost impossible to sift through. He didn't know how she could live like that. He literally wouldn't be able to hear himself think. He had had to strain just to be able to hear Aria's thoughts and it was even more effort to respond.

_'The guy that creates the portals had damn well better recover fast. I won't be her voice box for long. Two weeks off my sentence or not.' _Hiei thought to himself with a mental growl of annoyance.

Just as he finished that thought, the sound demon in question came skipping down the stairs, her previous panic over having her voice sealed away obviously discarded. She smiled widely at the two of them as she reached the bottom floor of the house and waved.

"Good morning!" Kurama called out, emerging from the kitchen. "Or maybe 'good afternoon' would be more appropriate given the time." Kurama corrected with a laugh, receiving a grin from Aria.

She immediately decided that she liked Kurama. His voice reminded her of rose petals getting rustled up by the wind. She liked it. Same with Hiei. Except with him his voice made her think of a small camp fire in a blizzard. She smiled happily as she heard Kurama start talking.

"Well I don't believe I ever got the chance to properly introduce myself. My name is Kurama and that's Hiei over there." He said, smiling welcomingly at the girl who suddenly frowned at him.

"She says you're lying." Hiei called out, refusing to move from his spot at the window. If he had to be the girl's voice box, he wasn't going to let himself be inconvenienced any more than necessary.

Kurama looked confused and glanced down at Aria who was still frowning angrily at him, nodding her agreement to Hiei's statement. "What does she say that I'm lying about?"

"Your name."

"My name?" Kurama asked in confusion and receiving a frown from Aria. Suddenly understanding struck Kurama and and smacked his forehead laughing. "Oh I know. What I meant to say was in the **demon world** my name is Kurama. Here I'm known as Suichi Minamino." Kurama corrected, chuckling and receiving a wide grin from Aria, who accepted his answer.

Hiei growled under his breath. This was going to be a looonnggg week.


	6. Track Four

**Track Three : Kitchen Symphony  
**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, I'm finally getting to the actual plot. Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

* * *

_'Hiei?...'_

_'...'_

_'Hiei?...'_

"What?" Hiei ground out.

_'What's your favorite color?' _Aria asked, looking over at him expectantly. She'd been asking him these questions for the last two hours and so far she was happy as a four year old on Christmas morning because out of all seventy-two questions (she counted) she'd asked him, he hadn't lied once. Sure, he'd refused to answer some (most) of her questions but still, that wasn't lying.

"Favorite colors are a waste of time for idiots who have nothing better to do." Hiei said, not bother to open his eyes from his place on the window sill.

_'Hiei?'_

"What!?" Hiei growled, his eyes snapping open and whirling around to glare at Aria.

_'Something's coming.' _ Aria said, grinning over at Hiei as if he was her favorite person on the earth.

Hiei rolled his eyes at her. She had been like that ever since she'd gotten there. Always grinning. Especially at him and it was ticking him off. She was stuck in the human world just like he was. Why'd she get to be so happy? Hiei huffed in annoyance but used his Jagan to quickly check any approaching energy signatures and found nothing out of the ordinary other than Kurama approaching the house. "It's Kurama." Hiei huffed, shutting his eyes again and pulling out of Aria's mind. He couldn't handle the sound in her head anymore.

Aria shrugged and walked off to sit on the couch. As she sat down she looked over at Hiei intently, waiting for him to do something like she had been all day. She'd been trying to figure him out for the last two hours and he wasn't helping much. _'He's just sitting there. How does he do that? Ishkabibbles is so odd.'_ She thought to herself watching him curiously, tilting her head to the side._ 'It's quiet in here...I don't like it...I'll fix it.' _

Aria got up from her spot on the couch and walked into the kitchen looking around for that thing that Kurama had been working with that morning._ 'Ah!' _Aria thought, grinning widely picking up the egg timer and then riffling through a few more cupboards till she found a few pots and a spoon and cup. Appraising her collection with approval, Aria laid her collection out on the kitchen floor, sitting in front of it.

A few minutes later, Hiei was out of his seat, sword in hand, heading towards the kitchen, ready to kill the girl. _'The hell is she doing in there?!' _Hiei seethed mentally, just a large banging started to sound from the kitchen in addition to the ringing that he could hear.

_Ding. Bang. Clang. Ding. Ding. Bang. Ding. **Brrrr! **Ding. Bang. Clang. Ding. Ding. Bang. Ding. **Brrrr!**_

And there in the middle of all this commotion was Aria, tapping her cup and pans with the spoon, banging the pots against the ground and setting the egg timer to go off every few seconds.

Hiei shot forward, so fast that Aria didn't even see him (not that she used her eyes much any way), and pined her to the wall, his katana across her throat.

The moment Aria felt the blade across her throat she dropped her spoon and ladel she'd been holding, letting them clatter to the floor. She looked Hiei straight in the eyes with a look of confusion but she was finding it hard to focus and all she could hear was the beat of Hiei's heart. It even droned out the sound of her bells jingling which she had demonically enhanced so they always stood out to her ears. It confused her and immediately piqued her curiousity, so much so that she found it hard to listen to what Hiei was saying.

"What the hell were you doing?!" Hiei raged, poising his blade at the ready position, you know...just in case she gave a dumb answer. What he really wanted to yell though was why the hell was she acting so much like the girl from his past, who just like the girl in front of him, had needed to make constant noise at all times. It infuriated him that the girl infront of him seemed so intent on effectively reminding him of exactly what he had been working his whole life to forget.

It took Aria a few minutes to register what Hiei was talking about because she had to tear her mind away from listening to the steady beat of Hiei's heart...and then she noticed the close proximity they were to each other...yeah. Her face turned beat red but Hiei didn't seem to either notice or care. She realized that not only could she hear Hiei's heart beat, she could feel it since he was so close. Just think something, respond, her mind screamed and after a few more seconds she finally seemed to catch up. _'It was too quiet.' _She responded mentally, pausing in her actions to look up at Hiei's face. _'Why is he getting so mad?' _She wondered to herself, though Hiei didn't catch it since he was too distracted by the large amount of noise in Aria's brain.

Annnnddd there was the stupid answer Hiei had readied his blade for. But the answer was so...strange that it was to the extent that it left Hiei scoffing for a few seconds. He didn't even know how to react. _'It was quiet...That's it...She broke the peace and quiet just because she could?' _Hiei wondered, not really understanding her logic.

_**Brrrr!**_

With a growl Hiei's blade came down to chop the egg timer cleanly in two, it's smiling little egg face now in two separate spots on the ground. Aria was released from his hold but she didn't seem to move. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't hear Hiei's heart beat as well now that he wasn't as close. She hadn't finished her curious pondering of his pulse.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hiei ground out, massaging his temples and putting his blade back into his sheath.

_'I'm not talking.'_

"You know what I mean!"

_'Not really.' _Aria responded with a confused face and her head tilted to the side slightly, her green and blue eyes staring at Hiei in confusion.

"Just stop making so much noise." Hiei growled, coming forward and grabbing the pots.

_'Why?'_

"Because-" Hiei started out only to be interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Kurama stepping into the house, calling out to Hiei and Aria in greeting.

Aria grinned and lept to her feet racing towards the door. _'He's here!'_ She cheered mentally, having gotten used to making all responses in her head instead of out loud. Her bells jingled loudly as she ran.

_'That's not Kurama.'_ Hiei thought to himself, immediately withdrawing his blade for the second time that day. The energy signature was almost exactly the same as Kurama's but Hiei had been around Kurama long enough to spot the differences. "Stay down girl." He said to Aria, who looked as if she hadn't even heard him and got up to walk out to greet the Kurama impostor.

Hiei growled at the girl's behavior but paid her no mind. If she wanted to get her self killed, fine. That would be one less hassle for him. He charged around the corner with all intentions of meeting the impostor head on but as soon as he rounded the corner-


	7. Track Five

**Track Five : Face The Mirror  
**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, I'm finally getting to the actual plot. Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

* * *

As soon as Hiei rounded the corner he came face to face with...Kurama...an exact replica of Kurama. Hiei's eyes narrowed. _'So we have some sort of imitation demon on our hands.'_ Hiei thought to himself, raising his blade.

"Who are you?" Hiei growled at the demon, his eyes flashing dangerously.

The Kurama smiled and had the gale to look confused. "I don't understand." He said smiling and flipping his hair over his shoulder. He may have looked like Kurama but his voice and mannerisms were completely different. A dead giveaway. Emphasis on the 'dead'.

Just as Hiei was about to lose his patience and chop the head of the impostor off, Aria round the corner and flying tackled the Kurama, a huge grin on her face.

"That's not who you think it is. Get off!" Hiei shouted, pulling Aria away from the man and holding her tightly in one arm to keep her from struggling back to the fake Kurama while still keeping his blade at the Kurama's throat.

Aria reached for the demon furiously._ 'It's exactly who I think it is!'_ Aria stated angrily in her head, scowling over at Hiei as he kept holding her back. She stepped on his foot causing him to yell out slightly more in surprise than in pain and then raced back to cling to the Kurama imposter.

"Aria, you think this man is being silly don't you?" The demon stated pitifully wrapping his arms around Aria's waist who was clinging to his shirt and then he smirked up at Hiei with a predatory like grin.

Aria nodded with a pout. The demon grinned down at her before shooting Hiei another smirk.

Hiei's blood was boiling. This demon was mocking him! And using the girl's stupidity against him! Hiei immediately decided this would be this particular imitation demon's last day alive. He snarled and lunged at the demon only to have Aria suddenly appear in front of him with her arms out protectively.

_'No.'_ She stated firmly in her mind, holding Hiei's gaze unfearfully which caused Hiei to pause in his attack and glare at her.

_'How dare she do this! Who is she to tell me who to kill and who not to!'_ He seethed mentally glaring at Aria but at the same time he somewhat respected how she had so thoughtlessly jumped in front of his blade. The only other person whom had ever done that and lived to tell the tale had been Yukina and she'd gotten away for obvious reasons. _'How is she so sure that I won't just kill her too?!'_ "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hiei snapped at her.

_'Protecting Kawari, my client.'_ She informed him, still not moving.

"Your client?" Hiei repeated aloud, not understanding.

_'Yes. He hired me. So don't kill my client or else I wont get paid.' _Aria said (well...thought) with a nod, crossing her arms.

Behind Aria, Kawari started changing. His youkai flared around him until, sitting behind Aria was a tan haired boy wearing...a small tiara...and baggy black and white clothes. _'Yep,'_ Hiei thought to himself with no small amount of disgust._ 'A mirror demon.'_

"Good afternoon." The other demon said, still smirking at Hiei. "And why do I feel like I'm missing something?" He said looking over at Aria curiously.

Hiei snarled but sheathed his blade (for the moment) and glared at the man, stepping around Aria. He picked up the man by the collar and brought him forward so He and Kawari were almost nose to nose. "You're not allowed to be here." Hiei growled.

Kawari's smile didn't falter but Hiei did get some satisfaction to see that Kawari's eyes showed his fear. "Who are you to tell me I'm not allowed to see the person I've employed to find something?" The mirror demon replied haughtily, trying to seem confident.

"I'm Hiei Jaganshi. And who are you? And why are you here?" Hiei growled threateningly.

"A Jagan Eye?" Kawari repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That's a new trick for a fire demon. I'm Kawari of the...nothing. And I'm here to get the report from my employee."

"She can't talk or report anything to you so you better leave before I lose my patience and decide to kill you." Hiei snapped while glaring at the man.

Aria watched the interaction between the two with only a small amount of curiosity. She was much more interested in a conversation going on just down the street between a couple about to get a divorce. With a roll of her eyes, Aria decided that the two demons who were too busy letting their testosterone do the talking for them were not worth listening to when there was so much more interesting stuff in the human world to hear so she went back to the kitchen to play with the thing Kurama had called a toaster.

As she walked away she felt Hiei grab her arm and she whipped around to see what his problem was and immediately deciding that 'Ishkabibbles' had gotten a lot angrier since she'd last seen him._ 'What?' _She asked him calmly.

"Would you tell him you're on lock down and to leave before I **make** him leave." Hiei snarled.

_'I can't tell him anything.' _Aria replied, giggling.

_'Well just make him leave Idiot. I don't care how you do it.'_

_'My name's not idiot.' _Aria replied, now scowling.

_'Well I doubt it's Aria either.'_

"I feel left out!" Aria heard Kawari call, but she paid him no mind.

_'What the hell?! Why?!'_

_'That can't be your name. And you said yourself, that was only your name the day you were captured.' _Hiei stated mentally scowling at her. _'What is your real name?'_

"Hello?!" Aria heard a voice yell from the entry way just behind them. _'Kurama's home!'_ She thought happily. Her scowl immediately dropped to be replaced with a smile as she waved at Kurama who was too focused on the strange demon in his hallway to wave back.

Hiei huffed and left in a blur of black, having tired of the whole thing. He'd just let Kurama handle it. The girl was getting on his nerves.


	8. Track Six

**Track Six : Nod For Yes  
**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. All I own are my characters.

Author's Notes: Alright, I'm finally getting to the actual plot. Please, if you have any critiques, I'm completely open to them.

* * *

Downstairs, Aria and Kurama were..._trying_ to argue, but without Hiei, who had retreated to god knew where, to serve as Aria's voice it wasn't going very well. She didn't understand how to use body language (sound demons generally just use their voice) and would shake her head when she meant yes and nod when she meant no on several different occasions making for a very confusing conversation. Even the normally calm and collected Kurama was beginning to lose his cool.

Not only was Kurama beginning to get frustrated but Aria was starting to become beyond annoyed. She had no idea what the issue was and she couldn't master the...nodding thing. _'Stupid head bobbing. How does this mean anything?!' _Aria wondered in frustration as she tried to mimic what she'd seen other people do when "communicating with body language". _'If you can call talking without words communication.' _Aria thought bitterly. She shook her head almost violently in every which direction trying to answer Kurama's question that yes, she did know the strange demon in his hallway, but instead just ended up looking like she was having some sort of strange seizure.

"Alright, just who are you!?" Kurama asked the mirror demon with a sigh, giving up on getting some semblance of an answer from Aria and deciding to try and get some answers from the other demon, deciding to trust him for the moment though still fingering the seeds he concealed his in his palm.

"I'm Kawari. I hired Aria and I was just here to check up on her progress with the little job I gave her." He answered, shying away from Kurama slightly, feeling the powerful waves radiating off of the man, which seemed even more intense and calculating than the smaller demon that had just left. "But now I have a question for you." He said, receiving a tense nod from Kurama, "Why can't she talk anymore?" He asked with a nod towards Aria. "Her voice is just so pretty, why would you want to take it away?"

"Her power had to be sealed which took away her ability to talk due to the fact that it is **illegal** for a demon to sneak into the human world." Kurama said sternly, crossing his arms.

"Mmm." Kawari said looking thoughtful. "Well Aria, maybe know you'll learn your lesson about sneaking into the human world." He said, wagging a finger at Aria while grinning, causing her to laugh.

"On a more serious note," Kurama interrupted, "You really shouldn't be here." He told the demon sternly, making it obvious that Kawari would be ill advised to try and go against what he was saying.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm leaving." Kawari said with a shrug. "Riiigggt after I get the report from my little song bird here." He said smirking and once again grabbing Aria about the waist and hauling her forward into a hug. He really had never been one to take a hint.

Aria who hadn't really been paying attention to the conversation between Kurama and Kawari (she had been too busy listening to the lesbian affair happening in the house next door between a married woman and a maid) squeaked in surprise as she got swept into the hug. She didn't really mind it, it just surprised her.

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly causing Kawari to gulp and shrink back just a bit. "Buuttt, I suppose I can always get that report later." He corrected timidly, releasing Aria but not before muttering that he'd be back to get his information later in her ear then changing into a bird and fleeing through the open door that Kurama had absentmindedly left open in his surprise to find some strange demon in his house.

With a sigh Kurama just shook his head. "Well I suppose I'll have to get dinner started and put up a stronger demonic barrier around the house." Kurama said shaking his head.

Aria just grinned at him, glad that he hadn't decided to turn Kawari over to Koenma like he had threatened at first. She liked Kawari's voice and would be sad to see him arrested, plus she worked for him. When she had agreed to work for Kawari, she had decided to only charge him four dollars since she liked his voice and heartbeat so much, but still...she wanted her four dollars. She had already completed her task and in her opinion deserved her reward. Even though, technically, she had some ulterior motives for coming to the human world.

Aria grinned thinking of her own secret reasons for coming to the human world with obvious happiness. It wasn't very often that sound demons kept secrets and Aria was quite pleased that she had one. And even better, she was already half way through completing her own mission.

Aria absentmindedly fingered one of her bells while walking into the living room. She listened as they all jingled their own tunes. Seven, she counted. Seven bells. There should have been ten but a few were missing and it definitely wasn't a good thing.

The only thing that consoled her was the fact she could sense one of her demoniacally enhanced bells near by...she just wasn't exactly sure where. She guessed that it was somewhere in about a one square mile radius but she figured it was one of the bells she had lost a long time ago so she wasn't as in tune with it as she used to be.

Over the last few months her health had been deteriorating and Aria knew she didn't have much longer to complete her promise and find all her bells. _'Just a bit more time.' _Aria thought to herself with a grin.

...

_'Alright how do I get out of this?'_ Hiei thought to himself and looking over at Aria who was sitting on the couch just playing with the remote control. _'She can't write...she can't manage nodding...what now?'_ Hiei wondered.

Hiei sighed and got up from the spot he was sitting at to walk over and snatch the remote from Aria's hands.

Aria squeaked in surprise as the funny kitty and mouse blinked out of existence as Hiei turned off the TV. She looked up at Hiei in confusion, not understanding why Hiei had felt the need to kill the mouse and cat (she thinks turning off the television kills the characters).

"I'm teaching you how to communicate without me." Hiei barked, tossing the remote to one side and grabbing Aria by the wrist and dragging her up to her room where he closed and locked the door behind him. There was no way in hell he was letting anyone see that he was actually helping the body languagely stupid girl.

Aria immediately forgot the cat and mouse and directed her full attention on Hiei, grinning from ear to ear as she was dragged along. _'Ok.'_ Aria stated mentally.

Hiei sat Aria down on the bed then sat down next to her. "Alright," Hiei said with a sigh. "Do you know how to 'yes' without words?" Hiei asked with a sigh, not really believing he was even doing this.

_'No.'_

_'Figures.' _Hiei thought. "Just do this." Hiei said, nodding his head slowly.

Aria began spasticaly shaking her head like a chihuahua in a hail storm.

Hiei growled under his breath and shook his head.

_'Good?' _Aria asked in her head, grinning from ear to ear.

"No." Hiei huffed. "Not at all." It was at this point that he realized what he had gotten himself into. And it wasn't good. He should have just left her to her Tom and Jerry. "Watch again. You're shaking your head all over the place, just up and down. Like this." Hiei said, demonstrating again. "Now try again."

And so she did. Except this time she did manage the up and down movement with her head but yet she just couldn't seem to resist the urge to rattle her head like a leaf in a hurricane.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Would you stop that." He barked, grabbing her head in between his hands to hold it still which immediately got Aria's attention away from trying to grasp that whole...nodding thing and put it on the sound of Hiei's pulse in his wrist. _'This is just like the last time in the kitchen,'_ Aria thought to herself in a part of her mind that was blocked away from Hiei's jagan eye as her whole concentration zeroed in on the rhythmic thumping of his heart beat in Hiei's arm , droning out almost all other noise which was something that had never happened before and Aria couldn't figure out why it was happening then. The only other noise that could block out sounds were the sounds of her bells but that was different, that stemmed from her own spirit energy.

Her heart rate immediately picked up and her face flushed._ 'Am I getting sick?' _Aria wondered to herself as Hiei once again started explaining the art of nodding (not that she was paying attention). _'This certainly feels like a sickness.'_

"Are you listening to what I'm saying!?" Hiei snapped after his third attempt to get Aria to pay attention.

Aria snapped back to the real world and tried to pull her thoughts away from his pulse and focused back on what Hiei was saying. _'Mm?' _Aria hummed mentally, _'No, not really. I was listening to your heart beat. It's weird. Not bad weird but nice weird.'_ Aria stated bluntly, looking Hiei directly in the eyes.

"Wha-?" Hiei said, thinking maybe he had misheard what Aria had thought. He felt his face inadvertently heat up. "What in the world does that mean?" Hiei snapped, trying to use anger to mask his confusion and the fact that he was blushing.

_'Your heart beat it's like...white noise. It drones out sounds.' _Aria tried to explain, not sure how to make a non-sound demon understand.

Hiei just huffed and jerked his hands back, scootching a slight bit away while trying to get his blush under control. "Whatever." Hiei said gruffly, "Just try nodding again." He said, not really looking her in the eye. _'What the hell did she mean by that?! There's absolutely nothing different about my heart beat next to everyone else's.'_ Hiei's mind reeled, thoughts spinning through his head.

Aria just giggled in her head, though slightly sad that Hiei had drawn his hands back. She nodded her head, this time getting it right. She grinned victoriously, looking over to Hiei for approval._ 'How about that time?' _Aria asked.

"Yes, yes. You got it." Hiei said absently, still a little offset by what Aria had said about his pulse.

_'What next?!' _Aria asked excitedly, moving forward to hear what Hiei was saying.

"How to say no by shaking your head." Hiei said, finally shaking off what Aria had said and regaining his composure.

_'Ok!'_

"Just do this." Hiei said, shaking his head to show her and then grasping her head and repeating the motion. "Now you." Hiei ordered.

Aria grinned and then repeated the motion, this time almost perfect the first try.

"Fine." Hiei said, nodding in approval. "Now let's test it. Is the sky blue?" Hiei asked.

_'Yes!' _Aria remarked chipperly.

"No, with body language!" Hiei barked, massaging his temples.

_'But that's stupid.'_ Aria remarked with a confused look. Shaking body parts in a certain way to communicate? How odd. No thank you. Not for her.

"Then why the hell did I just teach you all that?!" Hiei seethed, angry that his effort was going to waste.

_'I don't know,' _Aria replied mentally.

"Gah!" Hiei growled as he lept up from his spot on the bed and storming out of the room and sticking up his middle finger as he left._ 'Stupid girl. Is she just doing this to try and annoy me since I called her out on lying about her name?! I bet that's it.'_ Hiei seethed mentally as he went to go brood somewhere, leaving Aria to watch him in confusion as he left. _'What ever not my problem.'_

**_Later that night..._**

"Um Hiei can I ask you a quick question?" Kurama asked stepping into the living room with a look of confusion on his face.

"What is it Kurama?" Hiei asked, looking away from the window he was staring out of and turning his attention to Kurama.

"Well...I've notice something about Aria...Why is it that now she flips people off right before she leaves a room?" Kurama asked.

"...I have no idea." Hiei said gruffly, but was inwardly smirking and fighting back a laugh. _'I guess that she did get a bit of that body language lesson.'_ Hiei thought to himself with a smirk.

* * *

_Alright some people were complaining that it was too short so I combined two together. Tell me if it's any better or needs to be longer.  
_


End file.
